1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for and a method of processing data and an entertainment system for sending data to and receiving data from an external device, and more particularly to a system for and a method of processing data and an entertainment system which are preferably applicable to a system comprising a video game machine and a personal digital assistant (PDA).
2. Description of the Related Art
Home consoles such as personal computers can read image data captured by a digital camera and use the read image data when the digital camera is connected to the home consoles. When a small computer such as a personal digital assistant is connected to personal computers, the personal computers can send and receive various data such as image data to and from the small computer.
The home consoles include conventional video game machines such as television game devices. The conventional video game machines, which are in widespread use, read game data from a recording medium or an auxiliary storage unit, and run an application program on a video game machine processor based on the read game data to play a competition game, for example, in response to command signals entered from a command unit known as a manual controller operated by the game player.
Many video game machines generally have an excellent image and sound data processing capability so that the users can experience complex and realistic images and sounds. Specifically, the excellent image and sound data processing capability of video game machines allows complex game characters to be displayed and realistic voice sounds to be reproduced for the video game, and can present finer and more complex images and sounds than possible with existing computers.
Heretofore, for a conventional home console such as a personal computer to read image data captured by a digital camera, it has been customary to taken into account only the transfer of data between the home console and the digital camera. There has not been established any system for performing simultaneous communications between a home console, a digital camera, and a small computer such as a personal digital assistant according to an application program recorded in a recording medium.
For transferring image data captured by a digital camera to a small computer, it is necessary to convert the image data to a format that can be used by the small computer. When the small computer and the digital camera are connected directly to each other, however, it has been difficult to transfer the data efficiently from the digital camera to the small computer because of limited computational resources of the small computer.
Though the conventional video game machines have an excellent data processing capability, as described above, the conventional video game machines remain only a device for executing an application program to play a video game. There have not been established any system in which a small computer and a digital camera are simultaneously connected to a video game machine for sending and receiving image data and processing image data, and any system which effectively utilizes the real-time graphic computing and displaying functions of the video game machine.
Furthermore, any application program run by a small computer to use image data has not been provided by a recording medium that is loaded in a device to which both the small computer and a digital camera are connected.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system for and a method of processing data and an entertainment system, which allow a slave unit and a digital camera to be simultaneously connected to a master unit for sending and receiving image data between the slave unit and the digital camera which are difficult to connect directly to each other.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.